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Pauper’s Pantry: Pumpk it Up and Breakfast for Dinner

I have been beyond obsessed with pumpkin this fall. It’s one of my favorite seasonal flavors — only in competition with peppermint during the winter holiday season. Two of my favorite uses for pumpkin include pumpkin pudding and pumpkin spread. See below for pictures and recipe details, as well as a picture of my first-ever successfully flipped egg-in-a-basket (fried egg in a whole wheat bread slice).

Pumpkin pudding is one of my favorite ways to end an otherwise light meal, because the nutrients of the pumpkin keep you nice and full, without being so hearty that it throws of the balance of your meal as a whole. This is not a traditional sweet pudding, and can’t be found in a snack pack.

What You’ll Need:

-1/4 cup pureed pumpkin (I like Libbey’s brand)

-6 oz. plain or vanilla 0% fat Greek yogurt (I like Fage for this because it’s a bit thicker than Chobani)

-1 tablespoon semisweet chocolate chips

-1 packet Splenda (or sugar, or another variety of sugar substitute)

-1 pinch of cinnamon (optional – to taste)

Mix all of the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, microwave for 30-45 seconds, just for the chocolate chips to melt. Stir to best incorporate the melted chocolate. This serves 1 or 2, depending on just how hungry you are. Pardon my sloppy presentation.

For my pumpkin spread, it’s pretty simple. I’ve been dieting lately and have become a big fan of Weight Watchers’ 4-point bagels, available at most grocers. I spread on some reduced fat cream cheese, some pumpkin puree (about 2 tablespoons between two bagel halves) that I’ve mixed with Splenda and cinnamon, and top it with some chocolate chips. You can melt this in the microwave, but I prefer the whole chips and I toast the bagel for warmth. I took a picture, but had to take a bite before, so apologies for the partially eaten bagel.

Last, but certainly not least, for dinner tonight, I was in a breakfast mood. When I was younger, my cousin Max and I would hang out at his grandmother’s house (my Great Aunt). My Auntie Phyllis would always cook for us, like any good Jewish mother would, and one of the staples on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon was what we called eggs in a basket, or what my friend Rachel calls, “egg-in-da-bread.” I took two slices of Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Bread and used a cooking spray cap to cut a whole in each slice. I discarded the tops. I used nonfat cooking spray to spritz the pan, and placed the slices of bread in once the pan was heated. I cracked the eggs on a flat surface, dropping the contents into the holes in each piece of bread. Once the eggs had fried on one side (about 1 or 2 minutes), I flipped each slice gently, so as not to break the yolk. Cook the other sides for the same amount of time. With my eggs, I had a Dr. Praegger’s potato pancake and some fresh blueberries. #yum